Toskánský palác Audio guide

A Baroque Residence in Hradčany

Toskánský palác is one of the most striking secular buildings on Hradčanské náměstí. It is a large baroque palace complex that was built as a grand residence for the high nobility right next to Prague Castle. Today it houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, so the building remains linked to power and diplomacy.

The Building

The palace has four enclosed wings and a rectangular courtyard in the center. Its design is based on a project by the French architect Jean Baptiste Mathey, but the building work was carried out by the Italian architect Jacopo Antonio Canevalle. The west facade stands out for its richly articulated walls, sculptural decoration, and a pair of pavilions above the main front. Another important detail is the attic with allegories of the Seven Liberal Arts by Jan Brokoff.

History and Changes in Ownership

The building was started before 1690 by Count Michael Osvald of Thun-Hohenstein on the site of older houses that had belonged to the Lobkovic family until then. The unfinished palace was later bought by Anna Marie Františka, Duchess of Tuscany, and it was from her that it got its present name. Over the following decades, ownership changed hands among European aristocratic families, and from the middle of the nineteenth century the property passed into Habsburg ownership. After 1918, it became part of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Today

The palace has gone through several alterations, especially in the 1940s and during a major restoration in the 1990s. It is open to the public only in a limited way, mainly during exhibitions and social events in the ground-floor spaces of the west wing. Even so, it remains one of the key landmarks of Hradčany, showing clearly how an aristocratic residence was transformed into a modern state institution.